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A.N.T. Farm
A.N.T. Farm is an American sitcom which originally aired on Disney Channel from May 6, 2011 to March 21, 2014. It first aired on May 6, 2011, as a special one-episode preview and continued as a regular series starting on June 17, 2011. After airing as the preview of the series, the pilot episode "transplANTed" later re-aired after the series finale of The Suite Life on Deck. The series was created by Dan Signer, a former writer and co-executive producer of The Suite Life on Deck and creator of the YTV series Mr. Young. In mid-November 2010, Disney Channel greenlighted the series, with production beginning in early 2011. The first promo was released during the premiere of Lemonade Mouth. Taking place in San Francisco, the series stars China Anne McClain, Sierra McCormick, and Jake Short as middle-schoolers in a gifted program at their local high school called the "Advanced Natural Talent" or "A.N.T." program. Plot A.N.T. Farm revolves around Chyna Parks (China Anne McClain), an 11-year-old musical prodigy, who has just become the newest A.N.T. (Advanced Natural Talents) in the A.N.T. program at Webster High School in San Francisco, California. On her first day, she meets Olive Doyle (Sierra McCormick), an odd girl who has a photographic memory, and Fletcher Quimby (Jake Short), an artistic genius (but otherwise quite dim) who falls deeply in love with her when they first meet. They soon become her best friends at the high school. They proceed to go on multiple adventures, using their talents to their advantage. Before Chyna meets Olive and Fletcher, she meets Gibson (Zach Steel), the counselor, tutor, and therapist of the A.N.T. Farm, who is a strange, goofy guy who isn't the brightest person. The school's "it" girl, Lexi Reed (Stefanie Scott), is one of the teenagers who thinks the ants are little kids at Webster. She proceeds to bully Chyna, thinking of her as competition in being the star of the school. Chyna's bumbling older brother, Cameron (Carlon Jeffery), attempts to avoid Chyna in high school as much as he can, afraid she will be an embarrassment to him. Lexi's best friend Paisley, (Allie DeBerry) and Chyna, Olive, and Fletcher's friend Angus (Aedin Mincks) share major recurring roles on the series. Season 3 takes place at a boarding school instead of at Webster High School. The school is run by a big technology company, Z Tech, owned by Zoltan Grundy (Dominic Burgess). The series ended with Fletcher (Jake Short) winning an art fellowship in New York City. Production 'Development' Disney Channel announced on November 11, 2010 that they had green-lighted the show for production, which began in early 2011. The show was first conceived when Dan Signer, creator of the show, saw China Anne McClain. "The girl had so much confidence. She can nail a joke. She can sing. She can play instruments. It's like China was some sort of child prodigy ... And that's when it hit me: Why not build a show around a child prodigy? Someone who's got all of this natural talent & ability but is still challenged when she's sent off to high school at the age of 11?" Signer said in an interview. After the first few episodes of the show were shown, Disney Channel bumped up their order of episodes for the show from 13 episodes to 21 episodes for the first season. On November 19, 2011, the series was renewed for a second season which would start filming in early December.[10] 'Casting' Sierra McCormick was cast after an audition where she continually talked about tigers. Dan Signer stated "And as I heard her continually talking about tigers, I thought 'That's just how Olive would sound.' Which is how Sierra got that part." Jake Short was the last of the three core characters to be cast. Characters 'Main characters' *'Chyna Parks' (China Anne McClain) is the A.N.T. program's musically gifted one, as she can play the guitar, piano, violin, trumpet,saxophone, flute, cello, harp, bagpipes, French horn, bugle, theremin, drums, harmonica, keyboard, bassoon, tuba and the spoons. She also sings a lot, blowing people away with her big, soulful voice. Never afraid of a challenge, she sees high school as an exciting place. Unfortunately, she’s going to have to drag her new friends out of their shells to experience it. In "ballet dANTser", Chyna reveals that the only instrument she cannot play is the triangle. *'Olive Doyle' (Sierra McCormick) is extremely smart. Thanks to her eidetic memory, everything she’s ever read, heard, or seen is permanently etched in her brain. Olive, always ready with a fact about pretty much everything, is something of an over-thinker. She’d rather hide in the safety of the ANT Farm, but her new friend Chyna is not going to let that happen. Olive is shown to have many different phobias, being frightened by things such as ghosts, leprechauns and curly fries. In the episode "phANTom locker" it is mentioned that she has a locker next to Cameron, Chyna's brother. In the episode "replicANT", Olive reveals that her middle name is Daphne. Also, in the episode "studANT council", it is shown that she is an excellent rapper. Her full name (Olive Daphne Doyle) in initials, spells odd. *'Fletcher Quimby' (Jake Short) is an artistic genius, gifted in all media – painting, sculpture, drawing, and other forms of art. But to him, the most beautiful work of art is Chyna. He's been in love with her since the first moment he saw her, though has trouble keeping his crush a secret when he’s constantly immortalizing her in his art. His crush on her may lead him to lose his mind sometimes, like how he denies that he likes her right in front of her. For example, in "transplANTed", when Fletcher saw Chyna walk into the A.N.T. Farm, he instantly said that she is beautiful. *'Lexi Reed' (Stefanie Scott) Lexi Reed is Chyna’s biggest rival at Webster High. She is the series' main antagonist. Chyna may be the leader of the ANTs, but Lexi still considers herself the Queen Bee. She was known as the star of every school play until Chyna showed up, creating a rivalry between the two. However, she begins allying with Chyna and her friends, especially Cameron. Eventually, she becomes Student-Body President. Her best friend and sidekick is Paisley, who will listen to every word Lexi says, but sometimes in the wrong way. She hates Vanessa (Vanessa Morgan) because everyone thinks Vanessa is prettier than her. She works at Hippo's restaurant. Lexi kisses Cameron for first time ever in the episode "detective agANTcy." She is also the winner of many pagaents. *'Cameron Parks' (Carlon Jeffery, seasons 1-2, regular) is Chyna’s older brother, though he spends a lot of time in her shadow. While she’s a prodigy, he’s not especially gifted at anything, but is determined to find something at which he excels. He’s not thrilled that his kid sister is at his school, so he tries to keep his distance. But, when push comes to shove, Cameron will step up to help Chyna, especially when it involves problems with Lexi. In some scenarios, Chyna helps him. He is under five feet tall, even as a sophomore. Ironically, he often seems to get along with his sister's nemesis, Lexi, who mostly goes along with his plans to entertain herself because she wants to see how ignorant he is. He later has a girlfriend who is a model, Vanessa, but she broke up with him because he kept on spending time with lots of girls to keep Vanessa away from other boys, but she felt he had lost interest in her after Cameron's break up he reveals that he has a crush on Lexi and smiled when Lexi kissed him. In "replicANT," Cameron reveals that his initials are C.O.P. This is a joke because Cameron's father is a cop (This also leads fans to assume that his initials spelling,"cop," was intentional and that Chyna's initials could possibly also be C.O.P). Carlon Jeffery will not be part of the regular cast in season 3.[7]. *'Angus Chestnut' (Aedin Mincks, seasons 1-2, recurring; season 3-present, regular) is a computer genius who often runs illegal programs on his computer disguised as video games. He has a huge, but unrequited, crush on Olive. Because of the extensive time he spends on his computer, he is quite lazy and unwilling to do basic physical tasks, such as walking in between classes, to the point where he, in the episode, "ClairvoyANT", rides on an elderly scooter so he doesn't have to walk. Aedin Mincks will be apart of the main cast in Season 3, replacing Carlon Jeffery. [11] 'Recurring characters' *'Paisley Houndstooth' (Allie DeBerry) is Lexi's empty-headed friend. She is also on the cheer squad, even though she's clueless about almost every cheer, and often hopelessly confused about everything that's going on. However, she thinks differently than Lexi because she is more a friendly and sweet-spirited girl who cares about people. Both easily fooled and free with compliments, she is treated badly by Lexi despite their being "best friends." She broke up with her boyfriend Keith in ClairvoyANT after she accused Keith of hitting Angus's electronic wheelchair with his body. She loves Badgers as shown in TransplANTed. As shown in "ANTswers", Paisley's has two parrots that she believes that they fight because they don't love each other. *'Susan Skidmore' (Mindy Sterling) is the corrupt school principal. She's completely convinced herself that she is young and beautiful, to the point where she cannot believe her own reflection is her. She runs the A.N.T Program like a sweatshop, to use the kids' talents for her own use and benefit. She is at all times finding ways to spend as little of the school budget as possible. Examples include replacing dinosaur nuggets with different nuggets because they cost five cents less and replacing the school nurse with a first aid kit. *'Darryl Parks' (Finesse Mitchell) is Chyna and Cameron's dad. He loves his daughter dearly, but can be very overprotective at times, going to extreme and often ridiculous measures to ensure her safety. He is also known to be relatively cheap. Though known as a "highly decorated" police officer, he is rarely seen taking his job very seriously and is proud of having "San Franisco's cleanest cop car". *'Gibson' (Zach Steel) is the counselor, tutor, and therapist of the A.N.T. Farm. He is shown to be caring, sensitive, and somewhat dimwitted, as well as acting more like a child. He likes knitting, mahjong, and feeding pigeons. He doesn't like his grandmother's boyfriend, Bob, and in "Bad RomANTs," he has gotten back together with his childhood girlfriend despite the fact that she's in jail. Gibson keeps many items in his voluminous hair, from tissues to assorted foods. *'Wacky the Wolf' (Christian Campos) is the taciturn school mascot. The person inside the costume is never shown. However on Season 2, episode fANTasy girl, Fletcher removes the head and no one is inside the suit- yet it still moves. He is good friends with Chyna, Olive and Fletcher. Wacky is shown to take his job as school mascot very seriously. *'Roxanne Parks' (Elise Neal) is Chyna and Cameron's mom. She is a children's birthday party entertainer. So far, she has only been seen in four episodes, but has been mentioned in three episodes. Although she is busy with her work, she still loves her kids. Darryl tricked her into marrying him.[citation needed] *'Hippo' (Matt Lowe) is a creepy guy who went from the music business to the movie business to the restaurant business. He often changes the theme of his restaurant to ensure that it is stylish or as he explains it, "in". Chyna guessed that he is called Hip-O because he dresses really hip and his name starts with the letter O (Hippo's full first name is Oswald), but Hippo corrected her by saying that his friends call him Hippo because he's fat and likes to sit in hot tubs with only his eyes above the water (similar to a hippopotamus). *'Violet' (Claire Engler) is the newest A.N.T, with sports and anything athletic as her talent. She has an explosive temper, and reacts with violence to the slightest offence. In Ballet DANTser, it is revealed that she has a crush on Fletcher. She appeared in "InfANT", when Chyna, Olive, and Fletcher have to find a baby's talent. She also appeared in "fANTasy Girl", in which she wanted Fletcher to go to a dance with her, but Fletcher didn't want to go with her, so much so that he convinced Chyna to go with him instead. *'Jared' (Cameron Palatas) is a Webster High School student and a minor character in the series. He appeared in "Some enchANTed evening" where he played Chyna's fake boyfriend, and in "You're the one that I wANT" where he played the lead male role in the school play and always stayed in character. *'Hazel' (Ella Anderson) "Orphan Girl" is a spunky, strong five year old that first appears in Creative ConsultANT. When Cameron and Fletcher want to see this movie that is for young kids, and invites some orphans and then Hazel wants to see a different movie instead. Then Hazel appears in the episode "AmusemANT park" when she and the other orphans got to an amusement park to play games. They end up playing "Pelt the Penguin", a game Chyna and Cameron created, and Hazel plays to win the prizes- Olive's dolls she was donating to charity. Also, Hazel used fake money to pay for playing Pelt the Penguin; she is very mean and clever. And near the end of the episode, AmusemANT park she burns all of Olive's dolls except the one that Olive was using for a doll pageant. Hazel often uses the catch phrase, "Let's get 'em! Orphan style!" when she wants herself along with her fellow orphans to attack another character (or characters). That catch phrase was first used by another orphan (played by Francesca Capaldi) in the episode "sANTa's little helpers." 'Guest Stars' *'Sequoia Jones' (Zendaya) Sequoia Jones is a teen movie star who loves to play her role perfectly by shadowing a person and almost stealing their identity. Her only appearance was in the episode "creative consultANT". *'Vanessa' (originally credited as Jeanne) (Vanessa Morgan) is a model from Canada and Cameron's girlfriend. Chyna tracks her down so Cameron would feel better, because in the episode FANTasy Girl, Cameron imagines Vanessa is his date to the dance, but thinks her name is Jeanne Gossamer because he was dozing off, looking at Lexi's magazine where she was on the cover of a jeans catalog. Chyna helps Cameron track down his imaginary model girlfriend, whose real name is Vanessa LaFontaine, and Chyna and Angus do everything they can to help Cameron impress her. Vanessa has bandages on her eyes that kept her from seeing what Cameron actually looked like. In ANTswers, Lexi gets jealous of Vanessa when she models for Hippo's new restaurant, and convinces Cameron that Vanessa might be an alien. In the end they find out Vanessa is an alien, but not the kind they thought. She is from Canada, so she isn't a US citizen, making her an alien. In ANTagonist, Cameron joins the several clubs with Vanessa which Lexi is the president of to keep the guys away from her. Vanessa thinks Cameron hangs out with the girls because he has lost interest in her. Vanessa breaks up with Cameron. *'Tasmanian Neville' (Billy Unger) Tasmanian Neville is an Australian "Explorer". He acts like he is a proper survivalist when he turns out to be a weakling. His only appearance was in the episode "endurANTS". He gets lost with Angus, Chyna, Fletcher and Olive. Fletcher goes and hunts and the ANTs get trouble-sick and fight wild emus over a watering hole. Episodes 'Special Episodes' Music *Dynamite by China Anne McClain *Exceptional by China Anne McClain *My Crush by China Anne McClain *Unstoppable China Anne McClain Gallery The Gallery for A.N.T. Farm can be found here. Category:A.N.T. Farm Category:Disney Channel shows Category:Family Channel shows Category:Ended Series Category:Shows with wikis Category:2011 Category:2011 premieres Category:Disney Channel Original Series Category:Disney Channel Shows Category:2014 ended series